Booking tickets to Disneyland and Disney Sea may or may not be on your priority list for your trip to Japan. But it may also be the sole reason why you are going. For me, I am going on my birthday with my best friend and is just 1 exciting part of my holiday in Japan. However, booking tickets was actually no easy feat. And definitely thought it was an experience worth sharing in case some one else was struggling like I was.

After watching what felt like 100 Japan holiday vlogs at this stage into my japlanning experience. I struggled to actually find certain information for booking that I at first called a travel agent to see what deals they could find for me. Unfortunately they were out of my budget - but very useful.

If you are a family and you are going to Japan solely for a Disney resort package or similar, I highly recommend arranging a deal with a travel agent, it's great certainty to know everything is taken care of and you simply need to board the plane and turn up. Most likely they will sort out a deal that is with a Disney partnered hotel and will allow you early entry into the resorts. And in hindsight, maybe it is worth anyone in general going for this option, if Disneyland and Disney Sea is something you _really_ want to do, this is the most hassle free option.

For me on the other hand I needed an almost more backpackers approach. Air bnb is an absolute option. If you plan on commuting to Chiba prefecture from Tokyo you can also pay for shared bus options available from certain websites (all details listed below). But coincidentally the weekend I wanted to go is also Chinese New Year so I wanted to book a budget friendly hotel to stay in with my friend. 2 nights, 1 night to allow us to literally get there as early as possible the next morning and the 2nd night to allow us the same liberty again. However after all hotel bookings assured, I thought it must be simple enough to just use the Disney website to book my tickets. And theoretically it is that simple. Select the day pass type you want, on the dates you want, book & pay for your ticket. However, it would not accept my credit card and the site also gets very busy with traffic and also is down for maintenance often. In actual the website was SO busy that the gateway for my payment to go through was just not happening. After 2 days of trying a few times every hour and a good hour on the phone to my bank, we figured out, I was going to have to find another way to get these tickets.

What's a girl to do? I have been advised and I will also advice anyone who reads this that getting your ticket prior to attendance is _very important_ or face the massive queue to enter the park (on pretty much any given day). So at this point I was pretty keen on getting this e-ticket as soon as possible. I had less than a month to get this sorted out. After a short google and consult with my friend. I found a website called Voyagin. They allow you to book Disneyland and Disney Sea 1 day passes. I paid roughly 93.00 NZD (New Zealand dollars) per ticket per day. The exact same price as the Disney website. However there is a small turn around in time before they give you your e-ticket which is fine, they have a great online support team and a local office based in Tokyo, so if you have any issues getting the type of tickets you want they are willing to help. Finally! Disney tickets were mine.

So what did I learn from this experience? That Disney is super popular and do not under estimate that! Especially when booking hotels and most especially when acquiring tickets for entry into the parks.

Now for the tips. Below I will include links to some useful Airbnb booking sites. Sites that offer shared shuttle services to the resort. And where to buy your ticket. If you would like to know more about what packages Disney offers you will need to look at their website. And I highly suggest if you are after anything more than 1 day passes to either park to arrange this through a travel agency. Be warned that the park will not accept tickets purchased from re-sellers, they must be booked under your name through a travel agency or a partnered website like Voyagin. You may be severely disappointed to turn up on the day and find your tickets do not work - there are a lot of scam websites out there. Be careful!

UPDATE 9/02/18 - Another tip when booking your tickets is to check out websites that show you what are the busiest times for attendance. If you are wanting to avoid large crowds (which is not always a given) go on week day. Avoid public holidays and school holidays. Also if you are wanting to go on a specific ride, check the disney website to make sure the ride is not down for maintenance.